Shukaran!

I'd like to thank all of the teaching staff, room moms and parent volunteers to help make ES Discover Oman 2012 a great success! One gigantic thank you goes out to our D.O. coordinator, Ms. Tena Bos. For many years, Ms. Bos has been coordinating D.O. trips for TAISM. She's done a wonderful job making sure of our needs and safety, and transportation. Our children and ourselves (teachers and parents) have enjoyed a fantastic week of Discover Oman. On behalf of my first grade colleagues, the children, and myself, I'd like you to know how appreciative we are to having you with us and being a part of this meaningful learning experience. Together, you helped our trips go smoothly, safely, and enjoyable. A special thank you to our room moms, Rania, Sara Jansson and Rasmia for coordinating chaperones schedule and chaperoning. Another big thank you goes to Dalia, Marie, Ann-Christine, Birte, Sarah Goforth, Dominique, Torill, Lesley, Sudha Sha, Amina, Aditi and Kelly for coming with us, taking beautiful pictures and sharing them. We couldn't have done it without you.

Tina - our Star of the Week

Congratulations to Tina, our Star of the Week for doing a fantastic job presenting her poster. We enjoyed all the pictures she included, especially her ballet and hip-hop photo with her older brother, Amirou. It was a really cool picture. We also enjoyed your photos taken in Atlanta at the World of Coca Cola. Thank you for sharing, Tina!

Omani Tent Day and 100th Day at TAISM

TAISM's ES Discovery Oman Week has finally come to an end. Today was our last day of a busy week of D.O. Many children came to school this morning in traditional Omani outfits - girls in colorful dresses and matching headscarves, and boys in crisp white disdasha and kuma. Our children had a fun-filled morning at the Omani tent, experiencing Omani traditions and cultures - learning about its traditional attire, foods, dance and music. They had a great time trying out dates, sweets, "coffee", as well as getting some unique henna and face paint designs.

Coincidentally, it was also the 100th day of school. We have been counting the number of days in school since the first day - noting it on our calendar, 100's chart, place value chart, and 10-frames. Two weeks ago, as we reached the 90th day of school, we decided it'd be fun to "countdown" to 100th day. Today, just before Omani Tent event, all of the three first grade classes got together in the basketball court, doing 100 exercises. Knowing that 10 groups of 10 make 100, we did 10 sets of 10 different exercises - jumping jacks, hopping on one leg, should shrugs, touching our toes, circling our arms, etc. It was a great workout for all! 

Bausher Fort

Last but not least, today was our last trip of our Discover Oman week to Bausher Fort. It was an absolute adventure for all of us, including our parent volunteers, Kelly, Aditi and Rania, as well as our teacher chaperones, Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Luther. We were also extremely lucky to have Marcel's dad (from Mrs. Irish's class), Mr. Tremblay, a geologist, coming with us and talking to us about different types of rocks and the mountain formations in Oman. We observed and marveled the great architecture of the ancient fort. Despite its old and crumbly facade, we were still able to notice the fine details of the doorway and arches. After our trip, we wrote what we learned about Bausher Fort and did a sketch in I.T. class using the program, Pixie Draw. Tomorrow - Omani Tent Day! We are all looking forward to it.

Natural History Museum

What another great experience we had at the Natural History Museum! Our students put on their "scientist glasses" this morning and off they went to explore the two main exhibits of the museum - living things on land, and sea creatures. We were very lucky to have five parent chaperones, Amina, Sudha, Rania, Torill and Lesley, working with our students in small groups. Together, they traveled around the exhibits, looking at the different taxidermy of various land animals like oryx, Arabian tahr, fox, and leopard, as well as studying the sperm whale skeleton and dolphin bones. They also took a real close look at different types of shells, rocks, meteorites and coral. It was a fun day filled with great learning and discovery!

Shatti Beach Day

Wow, another amazing day! Our children, teachers, and assistants, along with 4 other parent volunteers, Marie, Rasmia, Rania, and Dalia went to Shatti for an afternoon of beach fun! We laid out our wadi mats, set down our beach bags - some headed straight to the sea, while some took out their sand toys and soccer balls. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and perfect. Though the water was a bit chilly, kids still dipped their feet in and enjoyed the splashing of the waves. Sand castles were build, and so were streams of rivers, lakes and islands on the beach. A special thank you to Ms. Grace, our swimming assistant/lifeguard who came with us to help ensure the safety our of children in the water.

Tomorrow we are off to the Natural History Museum! It will be another amazing day!

Discover Oman - Ghala Village and Hot Spring Hike

Thank you to our parent chaperones, Birte, Sarah, Dalia, Ann-Christine, and Dominique, who helped us out today at our hiking trip in Ghala. We had a wonderful adventure exploring the area. First, we felt the warm water that comes from the hot springs in the reservoir and falaj, and discussed how the spring water and falaj are useful and helpful to the villagers. After, we began our hike; trekking through a scenic and rocky trail all the way up to the top of the mountain. On our way up, we found rocks of different shapes, colors and sizes, thorny bushes and desert shrubs, small black beetles, and even bones! After a 20-minute hike up, we sat down and had our snack while we enjoyed the top view of Muscat city - overlooking areas of palm trees and white buildings. Back in class, our children took out the many "mental pictures" they had taking in their minds during our hike, and color-painted the images that were their favorites. Later, we used our paintings to help us with some written reflections to further capture the great time we had experienced.

Slideshow of the Week

Connor, our Star of the Week!

Well done, Connor! Thank you so much for sharing your poster with us this week. We've learned so much about you and your family. You guys have been to so many cities and states down south and west. We all liked the photo when you dressed up as a Jedi and a scarecrow in Halloween. And we loved all your family photos too!

Rainbow Day and Discover Oman

What fun we had at Rainbow Day today! Wow, it was another amazing event that started with high spirit and ended with great pride in teamwork! Congratulations to all the elementary school kids, teachers, and parents who made this event so successful. Kids enjoyed all the game stations with their color team members and teacher leaders. Many kids loved the water sponge game, where they had to work together in small groups and carry wet sponges back and forth to fill up the water pails. It's always fun to get soaked a little!

Next week we will continue another busy week with Discover Oman. Please refer back to your Discover Oman letter/information packet that was sent home earlier last week for details. Most of the days we will be traveling outdoor (except for Monday, we will be at the Natural History Museum), therefore please help your child to pack a water bottle, hat, sunscreen, and a snack for the trips. The schedule is as follows:

Sat, Feb 18 - Ghala Village and Hot Spring Hike 8:45-11:30
Sun, Feb 19 - Shatti Beach 11:30-2:30
Mon, Feb 20 - Natural History Museum 8:45-11:30
Tues, Feb 21 - Bausher Fort 8:45-11:30
Wed, Feb 22 - Omani Village Day at TAISM (morning)

For the parent volunteers who are chaperoning, please note that the school buses have just enough space for students, teachers and teaching assistants. Therefore it is suggested that parent volunteers who are coming on the same trip to carpool. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

We look forward to Discovering Oman! = )

This Week in Math: 3-Dimensional Shapes

This week in math we have been learning 3-dimensional shapes. Our mathematicians explored both 2-D and 3-D shapes (manipulatives) and compared them. They noticed that 2-D shapes are flat, usually shown on paper and on a computer screen, whereas 3-D shapes "pop up" and reminded them of 3-D movies where the pictures aren't flat but they pop-up right at you. Later, we made a chart to help keep count of the number of faces, edges, and vertices for each of the 3-D shape studied. We examined prisms, pyramids and sphere today. Looking back at our 2-D shapes chart, we noticed that 3-D shapes have another attribute called "face", is a flat surface. We also noticed that because 3-D shapes "pop up", there are more edges and vertices than 2-D shapes. For example, a square has 4 sides (edges) and 4 vertices, but a cube has 6 faces, 12 edges, and 8 vertices. We will continue to explore 3-D shapes in the next couple days.

Question of the day: How many face(s), edge(s), and/or vertices (vertex) does a sphere have?

Cartography and Homework

This past week our cartographers are hard at work, making maps of our classroom. We learned that maps are drawn in a much smaller scale. Every map has a title and a compass rose, so that it tells what kind of map it is and the directions for the person using it. A map often has symbols (ex. a big dot to show a city, or a green square to show a park), and a key/legend to explain what the symbols stand for.

Today our cartographers continued making maps of our classroom from a bird's eye view. We walked and looked around the classroom and made note of the "bigger" objects like rugs and smartboard as reference points. Then we began locating and adding other objects in our classroom on the map, "table 1 is behind table 2. Ms. Zulfa's desk is beside table 2." With the use of rulers and shape templates, our drawn maps are easy to follow and read.

In your child's folder you will find a blank piece of paper titled "Map of My Room". Please help your child with this little homework assignment - locating reference points, such as windows, door, rugs etc. and adding things in their bedroom (pieces of furniture) and labeling. Please return by this Wednesday, February 15th.

Rainbow Day

ES Rainbow Day is fast approaching! It is going to be this Wednesday, February 15th. Our opening ceremony will begin at 10:40am and the whole event will be finished around 12:30 (just in time for lunch). Please remember to help your child to pack a water bottle, hat, sunscreen (or preferably put on before he/she comes to school), and wear the assigned "rainbow color" to school that day. For more details, please refer to the letter that was sent home from Mr. Luther. Lastly, for those who have responded to volunteer, thank you so much in advance! It is going to be a fantastic Rainbow Day at TAISM! The kids are looking forward to it!

Slideshow of the Week

Terry Fox Run 2012

Congratulations Terry Fox runners! Our Terry Fox Run 2012 at TAISM was a great success! A huge thanks to the parent volunteers for all their contributions to this meaningful event. A special thank you goes out to Ms. Laura MacDonald, for all her work to organize the whole event, along with Mr. Dan Everett, and our parent coordinator Ms. Betina Ramussen for their hard work! Our first graders showed extraordinary sportsmanship during the run. It was a long track for many of them and along the run I kept hearing some of our kids say, "I think I can, I think I can!" and "Never give up and do your best!". All of them reached the finish line and were proud of their hard work; knowing that their efforts are benefiting Omani children who are fighting cancer.It was a job well-done!

Our Star of the Week - Chloe

Thank you Chloe for giving a fantastic presentation on your Star of the Week poster. We loved your pictures. Many of us liked your idea of writing a short sentence next to your pictures to describe and remind you what you wanted to say about them. That was a really helpful tool for presenters! We also enjoyed looking at your family photos, especially the one you took with your little sister, Julia.

Slideshow of the Week

Shapes, Shapes and More Shapes

This week in math we continued to look at 2-dimensional shapes. We read aloud Grandfather Tang's Story, written by Ann Tompert, and explored tangram and composing animals just like the characters in the story. We learned that it was originated in China a very long time ago, and it was a popular game/puzzle that was shared by children. In addition to tangram, we also made shapes on geoboards. Our mathematicians stretched out and shrunk the elastic band to make various geometric shapes in different sizes. Today they were given a challenge: to use only 1 elastic band and make sure it wraps around the peg(s) to make a circle and oval. Many of them found it challenging. Many of our mathematicians came up with a conjecture that it is impossible to make a round shape on a geoboard with the given parameters because "pegs" create vertices and round shapes like circle and oval have no vertices.

This week in Literacy

This week in literacy, our 1st graders had a chance to share their personal narrative stories with their 4th Grade reading buddies. The 4th grade writers also surprised us by sharing their published realistic fiction stories. We really celebrated it like a grown-up book party! If you ever come by our classroom, please take a look at our published stories - they are displayed on our writing bulletin board.

In word work, students are learning the various word (inflectional) endings. They helped me come up with words they see everyday in their books, classroom labels, word wall and charts that have the same word endings. For example, -ing, -ed, -ly, -er, and -ful. We then brainstormed a bunch of words that have those endings. It amazes me how our children are applying the knowledge they have about inflectional endings and using it to help them decode and spell tricky words.

"Morning message" is part of our morning literacy routine. Each day I write them a letter, informing them how the day would go and the special events coming up in school. They have been reading these messages everyday and completing and writing missing letters and words in the message. Yesterday, we began to compose a morning message together rather than just me writing it out for them. They had a chance to turn and talk to their partners and brainstorm ideas and sentences they could include in the morning message, including a general greeting, a current school activity or event, and a question or some sort of closing sentence. They were all very excited about contributing their ideas. After we had a general idea of what our morning message would look like, students took turns sharing a pen and composing the message together. This activity, called, interactive writing, is beneficial to young writers because it encourages them to collaborate with others, build their letter/sound understanding, vocabulary, and concepts about print. It also emphasizes the importance of the "rehearsing" and "planning" stage of the writing process.

In reading and writing this week, students were introduced to our new poetry unit. Many poems were shared and written together as a class. We read poems by Zoe Ryder White, Shel Silverstein, Eloise Greenfield, and Valerie Worth. Our readers and writers have been looking closely and identifying the smart and interesting things and strategies that these poets used. For example, we read two poems by Valerie Worth, Goldfish and Dog, and we came up with an idea that Valerie Worth is a poet who probably likes to write about her pets. In Shel Silverstein's poem, Shapes, and Zoe Ryder White's poem, Pencil Sharpener, we noticed that these poets both turned something so ordinary into lively characters in a poem. Today, our children learned that poets look at the world in a fresh, new way by taking any ordinary objects and using descriptive poetic language to capture readers' attention. Each of them got a poetry notepad to jot their ideas down. They were very excited about turning these seed ideas into poetry.

Alex - Star of the Week

Wow Alex, what an awesome poster you shared this week! We were all fascinated with the great pictures of your friends and family. Many of us wondered how you or your mom took that close-up picture of a cheetah in Kenya. That was a great photo! We especially like the photo of you dressing up in a Darth Vader costume and having a sword (oops, I meant light saber) fight. Thank you for sharing!